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Business Beat: Hotel possible for Bancroft Dairy site

Mike Ivey  —  10/15/2008 5:44 am

The city of Madison has been trying to boost redevelopment of the South Park Street corridor for years, including pumping more than $10 million into the blighted Villager Mall. Now, a Chicago-based real estate developer is eyeing the former Bancroft Dairy site on the corner of Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street, with thoughts of a hotel to serve visitors to the UW-Madison campus and nearby hospitals.

Clark Street Development LLC has been meeting quietly with city of Madison officials about redeveloping the site, which has been vacant since 2004 when Dean Foods closed the dairy.

The development firm -- which has also floated plans for a mixed-use retail complex in Verona -- is currently researching the Bancroft site to determine if it's suitable. There is apparently some environmental cleanup needed before anything can move forward.

"They're in their due diligence right now," said Ald. Julia Kerr, who represents the near south side district. "If they feel good about moving forward, then I'll go to the neighborhood."

The former dairy plant includes parcels at 1010 and 1102 S. Park St. Dallas-based Dean Foods purchased the site in 1988 and operated it under the Morning Star label.

No sales price has been determined but the properties are assessed for tax purposes at a combined $2.15 million, according to city real estate records.

The property is included in the Wingra Creek Market Study, a comprehensive city plan for a 64-acre triangular-shaped area on the south side. That plan identifies the dairy site as a possible location for a hotel to serve nearby Meriter Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital.

Clark Street Development officials declined comment on the Bancroft site. The firm has over 90 years of real estate experience, having developed more than 30 million square feet of space, mainly in the Chicago area.

In January, the firm acquired three acres of land in downtown Milwaukee at the intersection of 2nd and Michigan Streets, adjacent to The Shops at Grand Avenue and the new on/off ramps for the Marquette Interchange.

It has also pursued the "Shops and Business Park at Badger Mill Creek" near the intersection of County M and U.S. 18-151 in Verona. That project is scheduled for a 2009 groundbreaking, according to the firm's Web site but has not seen any activity to date.

Freed finds tenants ... in Chicago

While its Hilldale project struggles to land tenants, Joseph Freed & Associates is apparently having better luck on its home turf in Chicago.

The development group has signed on a variety of high-profile names for its "Block 37" development, an ambitious 280,000-square-foot retail mall project on State Street in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Among them, according to Crain's business daily: clothing and shoe seller Steve Madden; Godiva, a Belgian chocolate maker; Aveda, a manufacturer of plant-based hair and skin care products; Lululemon Athletica, a seller of athletic and yoga wear and Sabon, a bath and body products seller.

Also in the mix at Block 37 is trendy U.K. fashion label Ben Sherman and Spanish retailer Zara. Ben Sherman, known for its ties to the British rock scene, has agreed to lease a 2,600-square-foot store on the ground level. Zara, a low-price chic chain in Europe, is taking a two-level store along Randolph Street.

Freed hopes to have Block 37 open next spring, which is about the time weeds should start filling in the vacant land behind Hilldale where Whole Foods was to build a 65,000-square-foot store before pulling out earlier this month.

In fairness to Freed, however, the rap has always been that Madison is a "Class B" retail market that can't quite support top draws like Nordstrom's, Crate & Barrel or IKEA. Other developers have found out the hard way and now Freed is perhaps figuring it out, too.

Beer news

The results are in from the 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, the nation's largest beer tasting contest, and Wisconsin brewers as usual hauled in plenty of hardware, winning 15 medals, including eight for the newly merged MillerCoors brewery of Milwaukee.

The contest featured 2,902 beers entered in 75 beer style categories.

Bringing home the gold in the German-Style/Strong Bock category was Middleton's Capital Brewery for its Autumnal Fire. The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co. of Madison won bronze in the Old Ale/Strong Ale category for its Old Scratch Barley Wine '99.

Central Waters Brewing Co. of Amherst grabbed gold in the Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Beer category with its Bourbon Barrel Barleywine. Dells Brewing Co., of Wisconsin Dells won silver in the Scottish-Style Ale category with its Dells Chief Amber Ale.

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. of Chippewa Falls took silver in the American-Style Dark Lager category with its Leinenkugel's Creamy Dark. Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee won silver in the Gluten-Free Beer category with its New Grist. Titletown Brewing Co. of Green Bay took silver in the German-Style Altbier category with its Railyard Ale.

CoorsMiller brought home a silver for Hamm's and a bronze for Henry Weinhard's Blue Boar Pale Ale in the American-Style Cream Ale or Lager category; a gold for Henry Weinhard's Hefeweizen in the American-Style Hefeweizen Category; bronze for Old English 800 in the International-Style Pilsner category; gold for Coors Light and bronze for Keystone Light in the America-Style Light Lager category; bronze for Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve in the American-Style Lager or Premium Lager category; and a bronze for Henry Weinhard's Classic Dark in the American Style Dark Lager category.

Who says big brewers can't make decent beer?

See the full results at www.beertown.org.

Mike Ivey  —  10/15/2008 5:44 am